The present invention relates to a deformable mirror primarily intended for use as a beam train optic where frequency response, reliability, and cost of manufacture are critical to the design, performance and usefulness. Thus the invention has particular usefulness in deformable mirrors that are used in adaptive optical systems. This would include low and high energy beam train configurations.
A deformable mirror which is used as a downstream optic in conjunction with a substantially larger optical system which is disposed upstream thereof must possess a high degree of sensitivity with respect to its ability to make highly minute adjustments to the reflective surface of the mirror. This is because such optical downstream mirrors represent the upstream optics in miniature. Such mirrors have a diameter in the range of five to fifteen inches, but for the larger sizes use on the order of about one thousand separate piezoelectric actuators to effect such adjustments. As can be expected, the nearly one thousand piezoelectric actuators which are used, are highly miniaturized and make assembly of the approximately one thousand piezoelectric actuators with the deformable mirror painstakingly tedious.
The present invention thus has the specific advantages of the elimination of such mechanical figure control actuators, force or displacement types, which require individual fabrication, assembling and wiring into the final deformable mirror assembly one at a time. Instead, the array of actuators of the present invention are constructed in a one piece array configuration and manufactured in one piece thereby significantly reducing and/or eliminating the traditional hand labor costs required of other mechanical actuator based systems. In copending U.S. Application Ser. No. 08/796,008, entitled, INNOVATIVE DEFORMABLE MIRROR ACTUATOR CONFIGURATION, an improved arrays are stacked side-by-side to form the total number of actuators required for a specific deformable mirror configuration. The present invention seeks to eliminate the need to stack in a side-by side relationship by forming the actuator array as a one piece unit. Thus, the prior art produces actuators on an individual piece by piece basis. Each actuator is fabricated individually and assembled and wired into the final deformable mirror assembly one by one. The disadvantage of this method is the amount of labor required to accomplish it.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a continually supported deformable mirror support using uniblock construction, mass produced, piezoelectric actuators as an alternative to individual piezoelectric actuators thereby eliminating manufacturing and assembly costs inherent in systems utilizing such actuators.
Still a further object of the invention is to provide a continually supported thin mirror which is lighter in weight and less expensive to manufacture than those mirrors heretofore known.
Yet a further object of the invention is to provide a more reliable electrical connection to the actuators.
Still a further object of the invention is to provide an array of actuators of the aforementioned type by forming the actuator array as a one piece unit.
Yet still a further object of the invention is to reduce the cost of fabricating deformable mirrors.
Another object of the invention lies in the fact that the method of fabrication permits significantly lower manufacturing cost, which translates into increased uses as well as lower prices to produce a deformable mirror as compared to the competition.
The invention can also be applied commercially anywhere there is a need for low cost, easily assembled actuator arrays.